Childrens Sermon Service

Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” (vv. 22-24)

Object: An ID card. I used my driver’s license.

Hello, everyone! Before I tell you our story today, I have a question for you. Who can tell me what this is? (Show the ID card and let them respond.) It is a driver’s license, isn’t it? And what do we use a driver’s license for? (Let them respond.) It shows that we are able to drive a car, doesn’t it? But can anyone think of something else we use a driver’s license for? (Let them respond.) Have you ever been to the store, or the doctor’s office, or someplace else, and your mom or dad has had to show someone their driver’s license? (Let them respond.) Why did they have to do that? (Let them respond.) To prove who they were, yes. A driver’s license is one way we can show other people who we really are.

Our story today is about what happened one day when people were trying to figure out who Jesus really was. Jesus was at the temple in Jerusalem for a big celebration called the Feast of Dedication. There were thousands of people there, and many of them had heard about Jesus and the things he had been doing up in Galilee and they wanted to meet him. The people all knew that God had promised them that one day God would send someone to help them, and some of them believed Jesus was the person God had sent.

But some of the people there did not believe Jesus was the one God was sending. They believed God was sending someone else. Did you know that when Jesus was doing the things he did, there were other people going around saying they were the Messiah, the one God would send? There were actually a lot of them. Some of them went around telling everyone they needed to collect a lot of weapons and get ready to start a war and drive the Romans away. Some of them told people that God just wanted them to be happy and they should collect as much money and other things as they could collect so they could just take care of themselves and be happy.

So, when the people came to see Jesus at the temple, they were all pretty confused and shouted at him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly!” It would have been nice if Jesus had a driver’s license to show them, wouldn’t it? (Let them respond.) Then they would know who he was. But instead, Jesus told them that if they wanted to know who he was, just look at all of the things he had been doing that God wanted him to do. He had been feeding the hungry, healing the sick, taking care of everyone no matter who they were or where they were from. Those were the things God wanted them all to do and those were the things he was doing. If they wanted to know who the Messiah was, all they had to do was look at the things they were all doing. God wanted them to all take care of each other, and not create wars or just worry about themselves and try to get all the stuff they could get. If you want to know who someone is, just look at the things they do.

We have the same problem sometimes, don’t we? There are a lot of people today saying they are right and everyone else is wrong, aren’t there? (Let them respond.) How do we know who they really are and who we should follow? We could ask to see their driver’s license, but there is a better way to know who they are.

Instead, we can look at their works, at the things they do. Are they doing things God told us to do or doing something else? Are they feeding the hungry, healing the sick, taking care of each other instead of fighting or are they just trying to take care of themselves?

Let’s all pray together and ask God to help us remember how much God loves every one of us no matter who we are, what we have, or where we are from and ask God to help us remember to do the things God wants us to do to take care of each other.

Prayer
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us. Please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.